A Sentencing System for the 21st Century?

Authors

Paul H. Robinson, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1987

Abstract

The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 created the United States Sentencing Commission and directed it to devise sentencing guidelines for the federal criminal justice system. The Commission recently fulfilled this mandate, promulgating a final set of rules, which took effect November 1. Commissioner Robinson, in filing the lone dissent to these guidelines, argued that they neither meet the expectations of the Act nor provide a comprehensive and workable system. In this Article, Commissioner Robinson discusses the necessary components of a modern, principled, and workable system. He first identifies an ideal system by describing its primary goals and by offering the drafting principles necessary to create it. Next, he offers additional drafting principles designed to construct a workable system toward the ideal and to encourage the system's consistent application and continuing refinement. Finally, Commissioner Robinson illustrates the central features of a comprehensive sentencing plan that embodies the suggested drafting principles.

Keywords

Sentencing Reform Act, sentencing, United States Sentencing Commission

Publication Title

Texas Law Review

Publication Citation

66 Tex. L. Rev. 1 (1987)

Repository Citation

Robinson, Paul H., "A Sentencing System for the 21st Century?" (1987). All Faculty Scholarship. 620.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_scholarship/620